The San Diego State University baseball team won its first two games of the season, beating the North Dakota State University Bisons on Feb. 26 and Hawai’i Warriors on Feb. 27 to finish the Tony Gwynn Legacy tournament at home with a 2-1 record. The Aztecs won each game differently: a seven-run fourth inning against the Bisons in a 9-2 blowout and a pitcher’s duel where the Aztecs rallied late to win 3-2 against the Warriors.

Prior to these two games, the Aztecs were on a five-game skid to start the season. Their most recent loss was a 14-1 defeat at the hands of Washington State on Feb. 24, their biggest margin of defeat up to this point. The team, therefore, decided to have a meeting.

“We had a rainout on Saturday (Feb. 25) and we all met as a team,” junior outfielder Cole Carrigg said. “We want to play with that fire mentality that people don’t like. We’d rather be hated winners than loved losers, so that’s what we talked about and that’s what we are going for from now on.”

Game one: SDSU 9, NDSU 2 

The Aztecs came out the next day after the meeting to face North Dakota State. They wasted no time offensively, scoring in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead. The Aztecs and the Bisons failed to score the next two innings, as a battle between lefty pitchers, sophomore Chris Canada for the Aztecs and senior Max Loven for the Bisons, continued. 

However, in the bottom of the fourth, the Aztecs scored seven runs, their most in a game all season. A two-run home run by junior outfielder and pitcher TJ Fondtain started the scoring. His second home run of the season went right over Tony Gwynn’s picture on the right field wall and made it 3-0. The inning continued with run-scoring doubles by Carrigg and sophomore outfielder Shaun Montoya, capped off by junior catcher Poncho Ruiz’s RBI single to complete the scoring at 8-0. The Aztecs now had something that they had not had all season long, a large lead.

“I think it was about breaking it down,” coach Mark Martinez said. “Guys got to quit worrying about the past and start worrying about the present. We talked about it all week, if you start worrying about our results you can’t play a game that way. I think our guys started to throw away their bad at-bats and started going up there and doing a good job.”

While the Aztec offense scored eight runs, Canada pitched four innings, allowing one unearned run and struck out seven batters in the process. His start gave the Aztec offense the chance to create such a lopsided lead.

“Huge out of (Canada), huge start for us,” Martinez said. “Our last two games we’ve had bad starts and it could have broken down real quick… I’m really proud of what Chris did. He kind of threw the program on his back and did a great job tonight.”

Aztec relief pitchers gave up just one more run the rest of the way and the Aztecs tacked on another run in the bottom of the eighth to reach a final score of 9-2. While the Aztecs were finally able to celebrate a win, they had to come back the next day and face the Hawai’i Warriors, who were 4-2 on the season.

Game two: SDSU 3, Hawai’i 2 

Unlike their game against the Bisons, the Aztecs had to work for each of their runs, starting with their first run in the third inning: a Ruiz single, scoring Montoya, and putting the Aztecs up 1-0. The Aztecs held onto this lead throughout most of the game, thanks to junior pitcher Jonny Guzman’s five-inning shutout start.

However, in the top of the seventh inning, the Warriors scored two runs to take a 2-1 lead. The Aztecs were facing adversity and didn’t back down. Sophomore infielder Tino Bethancourt hit a game-tying home run later that inning to ignite the Aztec dugout and crowd. The momentum continued for the Aztecs in the next inning. Freshman infielder Maddox Haley pinch hit and delivered the eventual game-winning RBI single which put the Aztecs up 3-2.

During the two games, the Aztecs got offense from throughout their whole lineup. Against the Bison, all nine Aztec starters got on base at least once in the game. Against the Warriors, Bethancourt got on base four times and hit the game-tying home run from the eighth spot in the lineup and Haley came up big in his pinch-hit role. Pair this with only allowing four combined runs in both games on the pitching side, and the Aztecs got the recipe for their first two wins of the season.

The Aztecs will continue their season on the road when they take on the University of Las Vegas starting on March 3 for a three game series. This will be the first time they play against another Mountain West team this season.